


Proposal

by stardustandswimmingpools



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: (I WAS IN GYPSY IT WAS EPIC), (said in a Dainty June voice), F/M, Family, Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, I just want him to be happy, I will, Light Angst, Marriage, Tea, Ten Years Later, True Love, Well - Freeform, also, and park ranger!evan obviously, and zoe/evan STILL isn’t a real tag, as much angst as there is milk in that tea amirite, because I love him, consistency is for professionals, don't doubt me, if i have to singlehandedly make that real tag, lawyer!heidi, look at all those hyphens oooooh, mother-in-law-to-be, neither of these characters came up when i typed them, real tea not gossip tea, she loves him okay, therapist!zoe, this is so off-topic oh my god im so sorry, what is this misogyny????, which i am not, zoe talking about marrying evan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 07:41:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10407180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustandswimmingpools/pseuds/stardustandswimmingpools
Summary: Ten years later, Zoe asks Heidi if she can ask Evan to marry her.





	

**Author's Note:**

> WHEN ARCHIVEOFOUROWN BREAKS DOWN AFTER YOU FINISH WRITING UP ALL THE TAGS & SUMMARY AND EVERYTHING
> 
> Look! A future!fic! I wrote Zoe asking Heidi and not Evan asking Cynthia/Larry for a few reasons:  
> 1\. It's hard to write Evan  
> 2\. The ladies NEED MORE CONTENT  
> 3\. I love Zoe so much  
> 4\. Zoe doesn't care about _gender roles_ or _stigmas_ or _social constructs_  
>  5\. i feel like zoe would realistically ask anyway bc evan would be worried it was too forward
> 
> Also my hc in this fic is that Zoe becomes a therapist and Heidi finally gets to be a lawyer (she's a contract lawyer bc I only know two kinds of lawyers and I can't see her as a courtroom lawyer) and Evan is a park ranger atm, obviously
> 
> Anyway have this fluff with a dash of angst and some tea

“Hey! Zoe, sweetie, how are you?”

“It’s been awhile, Mrs. Hansen,” Zoe agrees, and Mrs. Hansen tuts as she steps back and admits Zoe into her quaint little home.

“Heidi to you, sweetheart, you know that,” she reprimands, smiling and peering out the door. “Is Evan with you?”

“Uh, no,” Zoe says, keenly aware of how loud her heartbeat is in her ears. She wonders if Heidi can hear it. “Just me. I was in the area, thought I’d stop by. Evan’s on a shift.”

“I _ thought _ he had work now,” Heidi comments, nodding. “Sorry, honey, do you want a drink? Coffee? Tea? Beer?”

Zoe chuckles. “Tea is great, thank you.”

“English?”

“As always.”

Heidi smiles at her, crinkles around her eyes, and then suddenly wraps her in a hug.

“Oh, it’s so nice to see you,” she says affectionately.

Zoe laughs. “Thanks. You too.”

“Okay!” Heidi pulls away, and brushes her hair back. “Okay, alright, I’m making tea.”

Zoe follows Heidi to the kitchen, the small, whitewashed, lived-in kitchen that hasn’t been redone since Zoe first stepped foot in there ten years prior before being hustled into Evan’s room. She smiles to herself, and when Heidi turns around and sees her smiling, she matches it.

“So,” Zoe begins. “It’s been...eight...nine months?”

“Nine,” Heidi confirms. She turns on the tap and fills the kettle. “Been counting the days, dear.” She laughs.

“How’s your job?” Zoe ventures. “You’re a contract lawyer, right? Last time I saw you…”

“Yes,” Heidi says excitedly; the not-yet-boiled water sloshes around in the teapot clenched in her right hand. “It’s so great. I feel…” She sighs, puts the kettle on the stove, lights the burner, and then leans against the counter. “I feel useful. You know?”

Zoe nods. She gets what it’s like to feel useful. Now more than ever, she’s never felt quite so important to people. It’s a nice feeling.

“I mean,” Heidi continues, looking thoughtful and...melancholy, “I’m an old woman now.” She chuckles. “Fifty-five and living alone in this old house,” she pats the counter absently, “you start to waste away a little. It’s nice to feel needed.”

Zoe knits her brow, worried. “Hey, uh. You know if anything happened to you, Evan would — I mean we would both just —”

“Oh, honey, I know, I know,” Heidi says quickly, and flashes a smile. “I’m not going anywhere. It’s just good to have a purpose. Can’t get rid of me that easily. Anyway, enough about me.” She fixes Zoe with a no-nonsense look. “What’s new with you?”

Zoe swallows. “Nothing much,” she says. And then shakes her head. “I mean, I guess...I’m working as a therapist now. For teenagers.”

“Oh, you are? That’s great!” Heidi gushes. “What a perfect job for you, Zoe. I do remember you mentioned that once or twice before to me but — well, I’m glad it worked out!” 

“Yeah, it’s pretty new,” Zoe says, playing unconsciously with the hem of her tanktop. She clears her throat. “There’s, um, there’s something else I wanted to ask you about.”

The kettle starts to whine, and Heidi says, “Just a minute, dear.”

Zoe almost just blurts it out, but she takes a deep breath while Heidi’s back is turned, and says, “Of course.”

The silence that blossoms as Heidi pours the tea and tears open the packets which hold the teabags is stifling. Zoe figures Heidi probably doesn’t feel it like she does, because, well, she’s not about to ask a monumental and potentially life-altering question. But still.

It’s unbearable.

Thirty seconds that feel like three years later, Heidi is holding out a mug to Zoe. “English tea, milk and sugar,” she recites, and then holds up her own mug. Zoe obliges, clinking their drinks together. “So, you wanted to ask me something?”

Zoe blinks twice. “Uh —” She lifts the mug to her lips and takes a sip. Immediately, the liquid scorches her tongue, and she gasps and squeezes her eyes shut. “Holy shit, that’s really hot, wow.”

Heidi laughs. “Sorry, I probably should’ve mentioned. Don’t drink it yet, it’s hot.”

Zoe chuckles nervously. “Listen, Mrs. — Heidi. Evan and I have been together for ten years — give or take.” 

The “give or take” is the rocky areas in their high school/college years when they were getting used to each other: when they argued because Evan felt that Zoe didn’t care about Connor’s death and Zoe thought Evan cared too much; when Evan acted so elusively around Zoe for several weeks that she accused him of cheating on her, when really he was working a night job to help pay for his college textbooks and he was too ashamed to say anything; similarly, when Zoe offered (again) to give Evan the money they had put aside for Connor, and he snapped at her and said she was only with him as a charity case. Bumps in a beautiful road that has since been smoothed over. Zoe wonders if Evan ever told his mom about the fighting. If he did, Heidi doesn’t show any signs of knowing, but she looks interested now, and Zoe decides she’s still in safe waters.

“Um, I love him,” she says first, which is the obvious thing. “And I know — it’s untraditional, usually it’s the guy who goes to the girl’s dad, and all of that, but it’s 2026, right? Anyway —” She shakes her head and swallows once more, and then licks her lips because they feel suspiciously dry. “I wanted to ask if I could ask Evan to marry me.”

A small gasp escapes Heidi’s lips, and the bottom of her mug barely touches on the counter (the tea spills over and splatters the marble) before she’s hugging Zoe.

“Oh,” Zoe says, startled, and puts her mug down, too, before it spills on Heidi’s back. “Wow, um, is that a yes?”

“Oh, of course it is, honey, a thousand times, yes,” Heidi murmurs. She pulls away, her hands cupping Zoe’s face, and kisses her forehead. “Ooh, I’m so excited! When is the wedding?”

“Heidi,” Zoe says, “I haven’t even asked him yet.” But the nerves are now bubbling up in her throat as laughter, and she giggles. Heidi is smiling so widely Zoe worries her face might split.

She puts her hands on both of Zoe’s shoulders and sighs happily. “No, but he’ll say yes,” she tells Zoe. “I know he will. Oh, Zoe. I can’t think of anyone else I’d want for my son.”

Zoe blushes and looks at her feet. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

Heidi finally releases her, and Zoe picks up her mug, blows on it, and then takes a sip. It’s still hot, but by now her mouth is basically numb from being scalded, so she takes her chances.

“Zoe, can I tell you something?” Heidi says, in a quiet voice that means it’s a secret, and maybe a shameful one. Zoe nods immediately.

“I…” Heidi sighs. “I didn’t think Evan would ever get married.”

Zoe frowns, but Heidi keeps going.

“I love him to death, you know,”  she adds. “And I hoped — I prayed he’d find someone, but he has so much trouble talking to people, and he used to be so awkward all the time, and I was  _ so _ worried that he wouldn’t find anyone who could put up with that enough.”

Zoe feels her chest tighten with such a plethora of feeling she isn't sure if she can identify them all. Thinking about Evan, ten years ago, alone, drifting, blending into the lockers and tiled floors, teased and taunted and ignored and left to climb trees and fall from them — even now, Zoe hates it, all of it. Her greatest regret is not approaching Evan earlier. God knows he could've used a friend, a someone, anyone — especially anyone other than Connor. 

Zoe’s made her peace with Connor’s memory, but eighteen years of asshole is a little hard to scratch off the soul.

Anyway.

“Well,” she manages, as much strength to her voice as she can muster, “here I am.”

When the light catches her face, Heidi’s eyes are shining, glassy with unshed tears. She blinks several times, chuckling at herself as she wipes her eyes, and clears her throat. “Ah, I'm so sorry. I — I'm so proud of him. And I'm so grateful to you” — she grasps Zoe’s hands in her own — “for bringing him out of his shell, for making him smile, you...you've done so much for me and my son. I can't thank you enough.”

Zoe can definitely feel tears stinging her eyes. She smiles. “You've done so much for me, too, Heidi,” she confesses. “You're a wonderful...almost-mother-in-law.” She breathes a laugh of disbelief. “Woah.”

“Yeah,” Heidi echoes. “Woah.”

Zoe takes a long sip of her tea, which is mostly room temperature now, and smacks her lips. “I must say, Heidi, you make the best tea I've ever had.”

Heidi beams, and squeezes Zoe’s hands. “Oh, sweetheart,” she says softly, “call me mom.”

Suddenly there's a lump in Zoe’s throat, and her eyes are prickling again. She opens her mouth, feels the tears that threaten to spill — tears of joy, elation,  _ home _ — and instead just nods, a smile stretching to her ears.

Maybe it's the extra sugar, but her tea tastes a little sweeter now.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!! i am on the hellsite tumblr at @do-you-ever-really-crash or @vivilevone so feel FREE to yell at me on there. also feel free to send me writing prompts bc i need inspiration u feel me anyway BYE!


End file.
